Music Composition

Description

Music has the ability to inspire, to bring joy to those who hear it and those who create it. It can convey great emotion in just a few powerful notes. There is, perhaps, no greater expression of the human spirit. For this reason, the Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition honors those who bring beauty and inspiration into the world.

The University of Louisville offers an international prize in recognition of outstanding achievement by a living composer in a large musical genre: choral, orchestral, chamber, electronic, song-cycle, dance, opera, musical theater, extended solo work and more. The award will be granted for a work premiered during the five-year period prior to the award deadline (i.e. time period Jan.1, 2012 – Dec. 31, 2016 for the 2018 award).

Prize AmountThe Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition is accompanied by a prize of $100,000, which is presented in full during the awards ceremony.

In 1983, Charles Grawemeyer met with Dr. Jerry Ball, dean of the University of Louisville School of Music, to discuss establishing a prize in music, but Mr. Grawemeyer wasn’t sure what it should honor. So they talked and settled on composition, with Mr. Grawemeyer concluding, according to Dr. Ball, “If we did something like this perhaps we could find another Mozart.”

Music composition became the first of the five Grawemeyer award categories. Being first, it took almost two years to work out all the details of the program. The Nobel process was studied and incorporated in part. But Mr. Grawemeyer wanted what he termed a more “democratic” judging, eventually involving three levels: the U of L music faculty, an international jury of professionals and a lay (non-professional, but knowledgeable) panel.

In 1985, the first Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition went to Witold Lutoslawski, a Polish composer, for his Symphony No. 3.

Since then the Grawemeyer Award has achieved international recognition as the premier music composition award, regularly attracting between 150 and 200 entries from around the world.

“Charlie Grawemeyer could have gone to any school in the country, to any orchestra, any opera company, any place he might want to go to offer this prize. It’s wonderful that he kept it at home and honored his university,” said Ball.

The Nomination Process

Entries received between now and the January 18, 2017 deadline will be processed after that date. As stated on the 2018 entry form, please allow at least one month after that date for us to process the entries and give notice. We are unable to verify whether or not a specific entry has been received until it has been processed. We suggest using a service that provides tracking and delivery confirmation if knowing your entry has arrived is important to you. We look forward to your entries.

Judging CriteriaExcellence and originality.

NomineesComposers.

NominatorsAny organizations or individual with a reasonable professional connection to the nominee and the nominated work. Examples would include professional musical organizations, performers or performing groups, soloists, conductors, critics, publishers or heads of professional music schools or departments.

Entry Procedure

Submission of a complete score, compact disc recording of a professional-level performance of the complete work, documentation of the premiere, $40 processing fee, supporting letter from nominator, composer’s biography, and the completed entry form signed by both composer and nominator. Submission details follow and also are included on the entry form. The entry form includes an agreement that the score and recording will be kept by the University for archival purposes and spells out other requirements.

We plan to have an option for paying the processing fee via credit card online. Please look here and we will have that information and process available as soon as possible.

The University of Louisville School of Music is pleased to announce the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition 2018. The University will offer an international prize in recognition of outstanding achievement by a living composer in a large musical genre: choral, orchestral, chamber, electronic, song-cycle, dance, opera, musical theater, extended solo work, etc. The award will be granted for a work premiered during the five-year period between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2016. The amount of the award to the composer will be one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00).

The Grawemeyer Music Award Committee invites the submission of scores by outstanding composers throughout the world and has established the following rules and procedures for its selection of the winning work:

Each entry for the Grawemeyer Music Award must be nominated by a professional musical organization or individual (performer or performing group, conductor, critic, publisher, or head of a professional music school or department). A composer may not submit his or her own work. No more than one work of any composer may be submitted, and entries from previous winners of this award will not be considered.

Each entry must include the following:

One bound copy of the full score. (For works with non-English text, it is recommended that an English translation or English synopsis be submitted.)

One excellent quality recording of the complete work. Send only standard audio compact disc(s) – no mp3s or other types of sound file; please do not send DVDs or other media. If possible, please provide separate tracks for each movement of multi-movement works. Please omit tuning, opening applause, spoken commentary such as radio interviews or conductor’s remarks, or any other extraneous material at the beginning of the CD.

Documentation of the premiere public performance of the work between 1/1/12 and 12/31/16. A radio broadcast or sound recording does not constitute a premiere. The printed program (or a photocopy thereof) from the premiere performance is preferred. However, if this is not available, another form of documentation, such as a published review, or a newspaper or magazine article, will be accepted. Only one form of documentation should be included. Works may be resubmitted during the period of eligibility.

Program notes in English

Supporting letter in English from the nominator of the entry, which must state nominator’s relation to the submitted work and nominator’s belief in the outstanding qualities of the work

Composer’s biography in English, which should briefly outline the composer’s total achievement and recognition

Completed, signed entry form in English. Grawemeyer-Music-App-2018

Non-refundable handling fee of forty dollars ($40.00 in U.S. currency). Payment may be made by check drawn on a U.S.bank or by international money order, payable to the Grawemeyer Music Award Committee. Contact grawmus@louisville.edu for instructions on payment via credit card (no bank or wire transfers, please).

In the case of resubmission, entrants need not resubmit scores or recordings as these will be retrieved from the Grawemeyer Collection. However, all other required materials must be resubmitted and the handling fee paid.

All materials, including the handling fee, must be labelled with the name of the composer.

Please send only materials requested. Do not include press kits, reviews, articles, recordings of other works, etc.

After an initial screening, the Grawemeyer Music Award Committee will appoint a jury of three internationally recognized music professionals: normally a composer, a conductor and a critic. Each juror will select, from the qualifying scores, up to three works they deem worthy of the Award. These selected works are then submitted anonymously to the Final Committee to be judged by listening only. The Final Committee will then recommend one of these works to the President of the University of Louisville. Upon the recommendation of the President, the Board of Trustees of the University of Louisville will grant the Award. Final approval of the Grawemeyer Award winners is subject to approval by the University of Louisville Board of Trustees and the Trustees of the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary.

Completed entries for the Grawemeyer Award must reach the University of Louisville by January 11, 2017. The Grawemeyer Award Committee will acknowledge receipt of all entries by email only. Please allow a month after the deadline for such notification. Late or incomplete entries will not be considered.

Submissions and requests for entry forms or further information should be sent to:
Grawemeyer Music Award Committee
School of Music
University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky 40292
USA

Announcement will be made in December 2017 and the award will be made during April 2018.

The University of Louisville will retain all entered scores and recorded materials for inclusion in the Grawemeyer Collection of New Music, a part of the Library of the School of Music.

No payment will be made to the estate or heirs of a deceased composer.

“On the Guarding of the Heart,” a piece for chamber orchestra by Serbian-born composer Djuro Zivkovic, has won the 2014 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. The 20-minute work “makes a huge emotional journey in a relatively short period of time, moving through many landscapes between the mysterious, moody opening and the ecstatic conclusion,” said award director Marc Satterwhite.

“Spheres,” a six-movement work for orchestra by German composer York Hoeller, has earned the 2010 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. Nature, love inspires Grawemeyer Award-winning piece.

2017 Recipient

Andrew Norman

Play, a 47-minute orchestral work by American composer Andrew Norman, is the winner of the prestigious 2017 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

In three movements, Play explores the relationship of choice and chance, free will and control. It investigates the ways musicians in an orchestra can play with, against, or apart from one another; and maps concepts from the world of video gaming onto traditional symphonic structures to tell a fractured narrative of power, manipulation, deceit and, ultimately, cooperation.